


it's brighter now

by stormchasers



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24702529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormchasers/pseuds/stormchasers
Summary: “Nova!” Ruby yells, catching her by surprise. Nova almost loses her balance as Ruby throws her arms around her.“Is everything okay?” Nova asks, cautiously hugging Ruby back. The touch doesn’t shock her as much as it used to.“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us about your birthday!” Ruby says, jokingly offended. “I know we couldn’t celebrate last year, with everything… but we could have a party this year.”Nova freezes, trying to remember the date. It’s… “Sweet rot, it’s May 26th,” she says. Ruby’s beaming face confirms it. “That means… tomorrow’s my birthday.” She completely forgot. Birthdays never really were much of a focus with the anarchists, and her presents mainly were science experiments with Leroy. Occasionally Winston would tell her a story or draw something for her, but most of the time it was just a present to eat something other than honey.“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Ruby says. Nova shrugs.
Relationships: Nova Artino | Nightmare & Hugh Everhart | Captain Chromium, Nova Artino | Nightmare & Leroy Flinn | Cyanide, Nova Artino | Nightmare & Oscar Silva | Smokescreen, Nova Artino | Nightmare & Ruby Tucker | Red Assassin, Nova Artino | Nightmare & Simon Westwood | The Dread Warden, Nova Artino | Nightmare/Adrian Everhart | Sketch
Kudos: 49





	it's brighter now

**Author's Note:**

> so i wrote this for nova's birthday and originally posted it to tumblr (@novasbi / @nova-artino)! there's also a social media version of this on my [tumblr](https://novasbi.tumblr.com/post/619239535483748352/happy-birthday-to-our-queen-nova-artino-sorry-if).

“Nova!” Ruby yells, catching her by surprise. Nova almost loses her balance as Ruby throws her arms around her.

“Is everything okay?” Nova asks, cautiously hugging Ruby back. The touch doesn’t shock her as much as it used to.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us about your birthday!” Ruby says, jokingly offended. “I know we couldn’t celebrate last year, with everything… but we could have a party this year.”

Nova freezes, trying to remember the date. It’s… “Sweet rot, it’s May 26th,” she says. Ruby’s beaming face confirms it. “That means… tomorrow’s my birthday.” She completely forgot. Birthdays never really were much of a focus with the anarchists, and her presents mainly were science experiments with Leroy. Occasionally Winston would tell her a story or draw something for her, but most of the time it was just a present to eat something other than honey.

“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Ruby says. Nova shrugs.

“How did you even figure out my birthday?” Nova asks instead of replying to that.

“Your file,” Ruby says. “I was doing desk work for Thunderbird earlier and I wanted to see when your birthday was.” She smiles. “I mean, I didn’t expect it to be this soon, but I’m glad I didn’t miss it!” When Nova raises an eyebrow, she adds, “Well, Leroy also told me.”

Nova can’t hold back her smile. Of course. “You really don’t have to do anything—”

“Shut up, Nova,” Ruby says fondly, “We’ll throw a party for you. Balloons, cake, the works.”

Nova frowned. “I don’t want a party,” she says quickly.

Ruby looks at her, then nods. “Okay, if it makes you uncomfortable, we don’t have to have one. But we have to celebrate somehow! What if it was just the team? We could go to the movies or go skydiving or something!”

Nova laughs. “Do people actually do that? Anyway, I’d… be alright if it was just the team. And Narcissa. But no skydiving or anything. Maybe something we’d do on a normal night. We could just watch a couple movies at home.” It surprises her how… almost excited she is for this. While she’s still not too big on the idea of a birthday party, she really does love these guys. Her friends. Friendship is still a concept that is fairly new to her, but she’s glad she has them. Maybe… maybe she’s not so far gone after all.

“Yes!” Ruby says, hugging her again. “Okay, this is the greatest thing ever. I’ve got to go, but we’ll figure out a time for tomorrow. Okay. See you later, Nova! You’re the best.”

Nova smiles. “See you,” she says lightly. “Oh, but _please_ don’t make a big deal. No presents or cake or anything—”

Ruby’s face lights up. “Don’t give me any ideas.”

“I swear to the stars, Ruby, if you’re about to text the team to plan something elaborate—”

Ruby laughs. “Sorry, I have to go! My… brothers need me to help them with their… science project!”

Nova sighs, but a smile plays on her lips. She can’t say she’s too terribly annoyed about all of this. It wasn’t long ago that she was completely uncertain about where she fit with her team, but now… things really are good. Sometimes she still hears gunshots in her head when she closes her eyes, but she doesn’t need to run anymore.

(The second Ruby’s out of Nova’s line of sight, she sends a text to the rest of the team.)

_**Ruby**_ to **_nova defense squad_** May 26, 2:42 p.m.

> GUYS WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY

Nova’s trying to figure out how to make Oscar a cane-gun when he knocks on her door. He hands her a cupcake and she takes it, slightly puzzled as to what’s going on. “Uh… hi?” she says.

“Nova! Happy birthday-eve!” Oscar says enthusiastically. “Ruby told me about the plan for tomorrow night, and I wanted to stop by to see how you were doing with all your inventions and stuff. And my grandma insisted I bring you a cupcake.”

“Thanks,” she says. “Um, do you want to come in?” He’s acting kind of weird. “I can show you how your cane-gun’s coming along.”

“Yeah, sounds great,” Oscar says, slightly distracted. “What do you use to make your inventions? Like, what supplies?”

Nova blinks at him. This is odd. “Well, it depends…” She explains the different materials she uses the most, though Oscar mainly looks confused.

“Uh, could you write that down?”

Nova nods, reaching for a sheet of paper. “Why? Are you… considering learning more about this?”

“Yeah! That’s exactly it!” Oscar says quickly, looking very relieved. “It’s so interesting hearing about your inventions and I’m thinking of giving it a try. That’s why I wanted to know.”

Nova smiles. She loves to see other people getting excited about engineering. “We can go supply shopping together! And I can help you! Are you free right now?” She runs through the list of everything she’d need to help him with in her head.

“Um— no. Sorry. I’m meeting up with Ruby in a few minutes,” he says apologetically. “But maybe sometime this week?”

“Yeah!” she says. “Is there anything else going on?” She studies him carefully, watching him fidget with his cane. Something’s definitely not normal. “Are you… okay?”

“Yeah, totally!” Oscar says (not very convincingly). “Anyway, thanks for talking to me about this. And the design for the cane-gun looks awesome! I’ve got to meet up with Ruby now, but seriously. Thank you. And happy birthday-eve.”

Nova smiles and closes the door behind him. _That was weird._

_**Oscar**_ to _**nova defense squad**_ May 26, 2:58 p.m.

> Ahhhh I’m not good at lying

Nova heads to Leroy’s apartment the next morning. She tries to visit him as often as possible, and it’s always interesting to see his latest science experiment. He greets her at the door with a grin. “It’s my favorite birthday girl!” he says, wrapping her up in a hug. Nova feels like she’s gotten caught in quite a few hugs lately, but she finds that she doesn’t mind it as much as she thought she would.

“How have you been doing?” she asks him, eager to get the attention off of her birthday.

“About the same as you asked last,” he says. “I’ve been talking to Hugh and Simon a little.”

This catches her off guard. She figured out that most of the council isn’t actually that bad a while ago, but it’s still so odd to think of Leroy chatting with his once mortal enemies. She tends to try to keep her life compartmentalized, and the idea of a former anarchist and the head of the Renegades council gossiping over tea is too weird for her. “How are they?” she asks, still trying to wrap her head around that mental picture.

“Good,” Leroy says. “I’m glad that Simon can be around Max now. It sounds like they’re very happy.”

Nova smiles at that. She wishes the best for them, even though it wasn’t long ago that she attempted to murder Hugh. “I’m glad. They deserve to be happy.”

Leroy watches her carefully. “About that… are you?” At Nova’s confused look, he adds, “Happy. I know you said it wasn’t joy you were looking for when I gave you the choice to be free, but now… are you happy?”

Nova thinks about it for a moment. She never thought that it would be possible, after the death of her family and her search for revenge. Even now, there are hard days for her. Sometimes she likes to imagine an alternate universe where things aren’t so broken, where she has a sister and a few less scars and can fall asleep every night. But in this universe… so many things have gone wrong and have shattered and broken into a thousand pieces. But maybe she doesn’t have to imagine all these universes. She thinks of every kind thing her friends have done for her, Ruby’s insistence that they do something for her birthday, Max’s geology jokes, the cupcake Oscar gave her, and Adrian’s hand in hers. There is goodness in this world. While she can’t fall asleep every night (and often likes the perks of not having to sleep), she feels safe for the first time in years. Maybe her family’s dead, but she’s made her own. She has scars all over her body, but she finds that she doesn’t hate them anymore. So maybe she is. She looks at Leroy and nods. “Yeah,” she says softly. “Yeah. I think I am.”

Leroy’s face softens. “That’s good. I’m glad. So am I, I think.”

She smiles again. It’s a new feeling, and a bit disconcerting, but she kind of likes being happy. She’s never felt so light.

“What are your plans for your birthday?” Leroy asks.

As much as Nova wanted to avoid this topic before, she doesn’t hate it as much as she thought she would. It’s an instinct to hide, to pretend to hate things so that she doesn’t feel bad about not experiencing it before, but it’s also nice to let herself hope. “I’m going to hang out with the team tonight,” she says. “I don’t want something huge, but I do like being with my friends.” _Friends_. The word still feels foreign on her tongue. “I might hang out with Adrian this afternoon, too.”

Leroy smiles. “That sounds good.” It looks like a thought occurs to him. “But I think Adrian might be busy this afternoon. Something about, um… Max.”

“Huh,” Nova says, looking at him closely. Leroy’s a pretty good liar, but after spending ten years with him she can tell when something’s off. Interesting. She wrinkles her nose as she detects a new scent. “Wait… is something burning?”

Leroy’s eyes widen. “Oh! That’s one of my new experiments. I’ll take care of it. You should go. I don’t want you to have to deal with something like this on your birthday.” He shoos her out the door.

“I can help—” Nova’s cut off by Leroy waving at her and then closing the door. “Oh.”

_**Leroy**_ (direct message to _**Simon Westwood**_ ) May 27, 2:07 p.m.

> I think I burnt the cookies.

After leaving Leroy’s apartment, Nova goes back to her own apartment before realizing that she left her jacket at Adrian’s house a couple days ago. She contemplates just waiting until tonight to pick it up, but she kind of wants something to do. She calls him, but he doesn’t pick up.

_**Nova**_ (direct message to _**Adrian Everhart**_ ) May 27, 2:40 p.m.

> hey i left my jacket at your house on monday can i come over?

_**Adrian**_ 2:41 p.m.

> Sorry I’m not home! But you can pick it up tonight

_**Nova**_ 2:41 p.m.

> oh it’s okay i’ll just get it now i have the key

_**Adrian**_ 2:41 p.m.

> No don’t do that my dads are trying a new recipe Kasumi gave them and you do NOT want to get caught up in that

Nova frowns down at her phone and considers going anyway. Then again, it is just a jacket. She’ll get it back tonight. Instead she picks up one of the books she borrowed from Narcissa and still hasn’t started reading yet.

_**Ruby**_ to _**OPERATION DAYDREAM**_ May 27, 3:01 p.m.

> Running a little late but I’ll be there in 5!

Nova’s almost halfway through her book when Adrian texts her. She glances at the text, then gets up. Her fingers shaking, she quickly types out a response, then rushes out of her apartment.

_**Adrian**_ (direct message to _**Nova Artino**_ ) May 27, 4:51 p.m.

> Nova I’m really really sorry to do this on your birthday and that it interferes with our plans but can you come to my house right now?? It’s about Max and we really need your help

Nova knocks on the Everhart-Westwood household’s door. When she doesn’t get a response, she fishes out her key from her pocket and unlocks it, worry gnawing at her mind. She steps inside. The house is dark, but nothing about it seems unusual. Just… very quiet. She creeps into the kitchen, reaching out to turn a light on when she thinks she hears a giggle. She pauses, wondering if she imagined it. She steps forward, when the lights suddenly flicker on and there’s a chorus of voices screaming “ _Happy Birthday!_ ”

She almost screams, and then realizes that it’s just her friends. Her entire team is there, along with Max, Narcissa, Simon, Hugh, and… _Leroy_. There must be a hundred balloons around the room, along with some messily hung streamers. Some slightly burnt cookies sit on the dining table, along with a cake that has “happy birthday” written on it in icing. It’s just so very ridiculous and insane and _normal_ that she feels like she could cry. Everything about this has her friends’ handiwork, and she can’t help but laugh. This explains why everyone was acting so weird. “Sweet rot,” she says. “I can’t believe you did this.” She glances at Max, who is beaming at her. “Max is alright?” she asks, just to make sure. “That was just to get me here?”

Max hugs her. “I’m fine.”

She lets herself relax and smiles at her friends. At her _family_. “This is the best birthday ever,” she says. “Come on. Let me hug you.” And she absolutely cannot stand group hugs, but she figures that it’s called for in this situation. And maybe she doesn’t hate things as much as she thought she did.

-

The cake is delicious. The cookies are noticeably burnt, but the fact that Leroy cared enough about her to try to bake was enough. More than any of that, though, being with the people she cares about is the best part. She doesn’t care if she sounds cheesy; it’s true.

Once they finish off the cake, Danna suggests that they move downstairs. “We can open presents and then watch some movies,” Danna tells her, and Nova wants to complain about the fact that she didn’t want any presents, but in the end she decides to just nod and thank them.

“Go on without me,” Nova says. “There are some things I want to talk about with them.” She nods towards Hugh, Simon, and Leroy. Adrian squeezes her hand as he heads downstairs.

Once they’ve all left, she turns to Leroy. “Thank you,” she manages to choke out without crying. He’s been the closest thing she’s had to a father for over ten years, and she knows that he always tried to make her birthday special when she was with the anarchists. And now that they’re finally out of the woods, he found a way to make her feel loved. “The cookies were lovely.”

Leroy smiles his lopsided smile that she loves so much. “You’re welcome,” he says. “And no, they weren’t.” He shrugs. “I think my baking skills have improved, though,” he says. “And I barely did anything. Your friends really are something, Nova.”

“They really are,” she says. Turning to Simon and Hugh, she tries to figure out what to say and fails. “Thank you,” she says instead, and tries to convey everything she’s not saying into those two words. It’s not just for the party.

“Of course,” Simon says, and in those two words he tells her that he understands. He says them so earnestly, and it means that they would never consider _not_ doing this. “Thank you for everything that you’ve done for Adrian.”

Hugh nods, and Nova almost loses it. She’s not used to crying. “Nova… your parents would be so proud of you.”

This time she can’t stop it, and a tear rolls down her cheek, followed by others.

Hugh pats her on the back. “Happy birthday.”

-

Once Nova has dried her eyes, she joins the others downstairs.

“Finally!” Oscar says teasingly. “You have to open my present first.”

She laughs and humors him, and then laughs some more when she finds what’s inside. “So this is why you were talking to me about my inventions.”

Oscar shrugs. “To be honest, everything you said went over my head, but I would still like to give it a try.”

To no one’s surprise, Narcissa’s gift is a couple books that she picked out for Nova, and Nova’s glad that she can finally say that she started reading that book she borrowed a couple months ago. There was so much bad blood between them not long ago, and Nova’s astounded by how far they’ve come since then. And also how different things are from the time they dated. It’s so strange to think of that now.

Ruby gifts Nova a friendship bracelet, and Nova barely stops herself from crying again. It fits on her wrist perfectly, next to her father’s bracelet.

Max is next, and he hands her a small model of a house. “It’s from my replica of Gatlon City,” he explains, “so technically Adrian made it. But it’s our house. Just to remind you that while you have your own place now, you’re always welcome here.”

Nova sniffles. For a happy occasion, there seems to be a lot of crying.

Danna gives her yarn and knitting needles. Nova hugs her, and she’s relieved that things seem to be normal now between her and Danna. “They’re extra sharp so that you can also stab people with them,” Danna says with a wink.

Finally, Adrian hands her a canvas. It’s a painting of people standing under a starry sky. There’s her parents, exactly how she described them to Adrian, and Nova is painted in the center, surrounded by the rest of her team, as well as Narcissa and Max. She also sees Hugh and Simon, and Leroy, and… and Callum and Winston. There’s even a little Maggie in the corner, her face drawn in its usual frown.

She wipes at her eyes, not wanting to get tears on the painting. “Adrian… this is beautiful.”

Adrian kisses her on the cheek. “I wanted to paint something that would show how much you mean to us. And what better way to do that than to have a painting of all of the people who love you?” She smiles, and hugs him. “I left some space so that we could add on, because there are going to be so many more people who love you in your life.”

“I love it,” she says. _And I love you._

“Now, are we ready to watch a ton of movies?” Ruby asks, her eyes sparkling. Nova smiles at her, trying to thank her for putting all of this together. Ruby smiles back.

_**Nova**_ (direct message to _**Adrian Everhart**_ ) May 27, 9:55 p.m.

> hey i didn’t really get a chance to say as much earlier but thank you so much for your present adrian. it really means a lot that you would care enough to do that

_**Adrian**_ 9:55 p.m.

> You’re welcome!!!! I love you Nova

_**Nova**_ 9:56 p.m.

> i love you too.


End file.
